Tap DJ Review

If you hang around the tech crowds that I do, it seems that everyone and their mother is a DJ these days. Whether it's songs being mashed together or listening to Daft Punk tunes in Hollywood movies, people are now more exposed to the genre than ever, and everyone wants a little piece of the action.

Since the beginning of the App Store there have been soundboard/music creation apps, but only fairly recently (past year, year and a half) have we seen some solid DJ apps hit the market. Tap DJ, from Laan Labs, is one of the newcomers to the stage, and it is quite nice.

What works so well in Tap DJ is that the whole rig is shown through a few very intuitive screens. Your tracks are easily selectable from your iTunes songs, crossfading and pitch control is all done with easy to use sliders, and samples are easily made from included sounds and recordable beats. When you are done with your master track, you can even save it for later listening or further manipulation. If you need some inspiration, there is also a great "Explore" section that shows you some of the top mixes and tracks from the Tap DJ community. I'm not entirely sure that I want to hear a Mike Jones/NWA mashup, but it is a good resource for finding new stuff.

As far as iPhone DJ apps go, Tap DJ provides just about everything that a budding DJ could ever want. As long as you keep your expectations in check (the app only costs $1.99, so it won't replace a $1,000, DJ setup), you'll find yourself with a very usable digital DJ program.